StoreDot charges smartphone batteries ‘in seconds’

Charging mobiles and smartphones is just one of those things we accept as being fundamental to our handheld devices. However, waiting for them to fully charge can be a burden, taking up to three hours in some cases, depending on the model and how much battery life we have left.

However, that is all set to change, with the Israeli tech startup StoreDot debuting a charger at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that can charge up your smartphone in less time than it takes you to boil a kettle.

Leo Kelion, technology desk editor at the BBC, said of seeing the device in action as being akin to a "modern-day technological miracle". A Samsung mobile, all but depleted of its battery "juice", was placed in the super-charger and within seconds, it was back to full capacity.

"We have reactions in the battery that are non-traditional reactions that allow us to charge very fast, moving ions from an anode to a cathode at a speed that was not possible before we had these materials," Doron Myersdorf, the company's chief executive, told the journalist.

Developing this kind of technology for smartphones – as well as more efficient and longer lasting batteries – is one of the key agenda items for some of the top global tech firms because the devices are already so central to most of what we do.

As such, because our engagement levels have increased massively over the last few years in particular, we're in need of batteries and chargers that can deliver high-performing batteries – and speedy charges – so that we don't have to constantly worry about our usage.

"Battery technology is the single biggest challenge holding back the consumer electronics industry right now," Ben Wood from the CCS Insight consultancy, was quoted by Mr Kelion as saying.

"Any claim to a major breakthrough should always treated with scepticism because it's been promised so many times before and we still don't have a solution. But if what this company is claiming to offer comes to pass, it would have a huge impact, as the amount of battery-hungry connected devices people use in their daily lives is rising exponentially."

In a survey carried out by Ofcom last year, it was revealed that just over six in ten adults (62 per cent) now use a smartphone, up from 54 per cent in 2012. The two main age groups boosting engagement numbers were 25-34-year-olds and 45-54-year-olds.